Madrasa Jamia Khulfa-i-Rashideen in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram has been unsealed and returned to its management committee, nearly five months after authorities shut it, following directions from the Allahabad High Court, according to the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).
APCR’s Uttar Pradesh chapter said in a press release dated November 7 that the madrasa was sealed on June 6, 2026. APCR had challenged the action in the High Court through Writ Petition No. 25563/2026.
On October 30, the court issued directions to the state authorities with a fixed timeline. The court said that if no adverse order was passed against the petitioner within two weeks, the seal would have to be removed, and clarified that any order passed in that period would carry its own legal consequences.
After the ruling, APCR said, the District Minority Welfare Officer in Ghaziabad began the process of removing the seal and handing over possession to the management committee.
The organisation links the sealing to allegations made by Ghaziabad Mayor Sunita Dayal. It says she claimed that cow meat had been thrown into the Hindon River, and alleges that she stopped and intimidated minor children from the madrasa as they were walking.
APCR further alleges that pressure was put on the administration to start false criminal proceedings against the madrasa’s teachers, who were imprisoned, and that the madrasa was then sealed unlawfully.
The events behind the case go back to May 24, when Dayal posted a video on social media saying she had caught two Muslim children trying to throw the remains of cow meat near the Hindon Barrage in Indirapuram.
The video, as reviewed by The Wire and Maktoob, shows the children frightened and silent, and does not show them throwing anything into the river. Police arrested three men linked to a local madrasa on May 25, and sent the contents of the sack for forensic examination.
The three, named in reports as Zubair, Aijaz and Shoaib, were booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for throwing meat in an open area and polluting the river. The administration has given a different reason for sealing madrasas in the area.
On June 6, officials said they had sealed an illegal madrasa in Indirapuram’s Kanawani colony, and another in Loni, as part of a drive against unrecognised institutions. They said the Indirapuram one was operating without valid permission and running a hostel in violation of norms, and gave the management a week to submit documents.
APCR was represented in the High Court by advocates Mohammad Khalid and Umar Khalid, and in Ghaziabad by advocate Nadeem Akhtar. The organisation said it will continue to challenge arbitrary administrative actions through legal means.
